Notes on the Shelter in Place - Tuesday, March 17, Day One

March 17, 2020

Tuesday, ostensibly St Patrick's Day, was our first day in Marin County to Shelter in Place due to COVID-19. At high noon, nary a mouse stirred up and down Fourth St in San Rafael. I went downtown SR to finish up some business at Copperfield's Bookstore but it was closed. And Riley Street Art Store also closed. Not sure why I thought they might be open - but it's difficult to imagine this reality. Some of the restaurants were open but very few people were in them. Plenty of parking on Fourth Street. One car drove up the street, a stark contrast to the usual bumper-to-bumper creep-along traffic most days. Another person walked down the sidewalk on the other side.

A  youngish man, street-living, sat on the sidewalk, braced against yellow stucco walls of the building, scruffy-headed, matted beard, rope holding his jacket closed, rope holding his backpack and belongings together. A stained cap hid his eyes, his face cupped in his hands. It seemed like the image of utmost loneliness to me. No home or hut, no community to bear witness to his existence, to see him. The streets were left to him, perhaps some of his friends, and the police.